Morning Brief: Senate rejects ‘Dreamer’ bills

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After last week’s stock market chaos sent the major U.S. averages down 4% — their biggest weekly drop since 2016 — stocks gained ground all four days this week. On Thursday, each of the major averages added over 1% with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way, rising 113 points, or 1.6%, while the Dow added 306 points, or 1.2%, and the S&P 500 gained 32 points, or 1.2%. Treasury yields also remained near four-year highs, with the 10-year settling near 2.9% on Thursday while the dollar continued its slide, falling another 0.5% on Thursday.

And the economic calendar will also be busy with a third inflation reading this week coming with the January reading on import prices. We’ll also see data on housing starts and building permits, as well as the February report on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan.

US Senate rejects immigration bills: The U.S. Senate rejected a series of bills to protect “Dreamer” immigrants on Thursday, leaving in limbo the future of 1.8 million young adults brought to the United States illegally as children. The Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to move forward on four separate proposals, including one backed by President Donald Trump and a bipartisan bill that had been considered the most likely to survive the deeply divided Senate. [Reuters]

Tech luminary Peter Thiel parts ways with Silicon Valley: Billionaire investor Peter Thiel is relocating his home and personal investment firms to Los Angeles from San Francisco and scaling back his involvement in the tech industry, people familiar with his thinking said, marking a rupture between Silicon Valley and its most prominent conservative. [The Wall Street Journal]

SEC blocks Chicago Stock Exchange sale to China-based investors: U.S. regulators on Thursday killed the politically sensitive sale of the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX) to a group led by China-based investors, saying a lack of information on the would-be buyers threatened the ability to properly monitor the exchange after the deal. [Reuters]

Walmart in talks to buy more than 40% of Flipkart: Walmart Inc. (WMT) is in talks to purchase a stake of more than 40% in Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart, a direct challenge to Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) in Asia’s third-largest economy, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. In what would be one of its biggest overseas deals, the U.S. retailer is looking at buying new and existing shares in Flipkart and due diligence is likely to begin as early as next week, the sources said. [Reuters]